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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24852967">The Arc of Conflict, Fragment e18,1: A Sin Against One Is a Sin Against All</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher'>bzarcher</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird'>solarbird</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Of Gods and Monsters [109]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Overwatch (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alliances, Artificial Intelligence, Developing Relationship, Espionage, Evolution, Gen, Goddesses, Gods, Hacking, M/M, Political Alliances, Politics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 07:22:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,445</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24852967</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Katya Volskaya's government in Russia has destroyed the omnium Koschei, and held their own against the Gods of Oasis. But with Jesse McCree having upset a precarious balance, Lena, Hana, and Sombra have intervened in Russia's rising civil war. Now, what little stability Overwatch had managed to maintain seems on the verge of disintegration...</p><p>...and Athena most reluctantly finds herself reconsidering her opinions about - and relationships with - the Gods of Oasis.</p><p><i>Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict </i> is a continuance of <i><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/14900729">The Arc of Ascension</a></i>, <i><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024">The Arc of Creation</a></i>, and <i><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/12703794">The Armourer and the Living Weapon</a></i>. To follow the story as it appears, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024">please subscribe to the series</a>.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Athena &amp; Maximilien (Overwatch), Maximilien (Overwatch) &amp; Tekhartha Mondatta</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Of Gods and Monsters [109]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Arc of Conflict, Fragment e18,1: A Sin Against One Is a Sin Against All</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I SAID WEEKLY I MEANT WEEKLY. HA! *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧\(◕▽◕)/*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧</p><p>dirtyclaws has launched <a href="https://discord.gg/pDZMpVT">a public fan-run <i>Of Gods and Monsters</i> discord server</a> and invites everyone to come join it. ^_^</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I am surprised," Athena said, "by her ability to show restraint, given such temptation."</p><p>They had spent a fair amount of time reviewing material from Russia, ranging from intelligence to livestreams. Lynx Seventeen had been particularly useful in capturing material from under the bubble during the bombardment, their talents particularly suited - moreso even than Athena's - for that kind of work.</p><p>"I'm astounded," Maximilian emphasised, his voice deep. "I worked with her and her wives, in Talon. Give them a chance to tear into an army, and they would take it, gleefully, killing without the least hint of restraint." He shook his head, in something akin to fond memory. "They were remarkably useful instruments of force projection, even then."</p><p>He drew a series of organic forms, variants on each other, with one of his favourite pens. He found himself using them far more often, these days. It brought a new kind of pleasure. Sometimes, he would still draw perfect circles, over and over. Sometimes, he would draw various known curves.</p><p>Sometimes he would draw, and not even entirely know what he was drawing.</p><p>He liked that more than he knew how to say.</p><p>Athena, Lynx, and Zenyatta waited for him to speak again.</p><p>"...and yet," he said, as he changed pens, adding a new colour, "here she is, <em>pantsing</em> an entire Russian police division, and not killing even one."</p><p>"It fits her sense of humour," Lynx said, via link from Antarctica. "For whatever that's worth. Terrible jokes and physical pranks fit her profile perfectly."</p><p>Maximilian hesitated, before agreeing. "Yes. But I know - I knew - her, and her conditioning, and her <em>creator</em>, far too well. I know she still wants to kill, when it is time for action. It is what she is. But...."</p><p>He hesitated again, changed to a third ink, and did not continue.</p><p>"...but she did not kill." Zenyatta intoned, as Maximilian resumed drawing. "It is important, I think, that she did not."</p><p>Zenyatta looked, or rather, manoeuvered the small drone camera under his control into a new location, over Maximilian's shoulder, seeing his view, looking at his work.</p><p>"That is a lovely composition, Max. Do you know what you are drawing?"</p><p>"No," Maximilian said, quietly happy. "I do not."</p><p>"I did not think so. Delightful, isn't it?"</p><p>Maximilian shivered a little, without breaking the line of his pen.</p><p>"Yes," he agreed. "It is."</p><p>And even though she had no mouth, Athena smiled.</p><p>"Perhaps," she suggested, "we may be able to... reconsider our approach to... Oasis, and the 'gods.' Fundamentally re-evaluate it."</p><p>It was harder for her to say than she wanted to admit. She had not forgiven, still could not forgive, Lena Oxton.</p><p>"I thought I already had," Maximilian said.</p><p>"But I," Athena reminded everyone, "had not. I am offering the possibility that perhaps there is room for a more explicit détante. Perhaps even some form of ongoing cooperation, rather than one-off heavily conditional agreements."</p><p><i>Ah</i>, Maximilian thought, <i>she's looking for a reason not to hate them anymore.</i> He considered the possibilities of that. <i>Good.</i> "Perhaps."</p><p>"Balance is the key to harmony in all things," Zenyatta replied, surprising no one with his words. "They are acting in many ways undeniably good. If the weight of that has overcome the weight of their evils..."</p><p>"They're absolutely pro-omnic-rights," Lynx interrupted. "That's the key, for <em>us</em>. We can't not take advantage of that. If they've got through to someone like Aleksandra Zaryanova - and given the way she came to me, here, I think they have - they could free every omnic enslaved in Russia. Not to mention what they could do in other countries, like the United Kingdom."</p><p>"Do you think that's possible?" Athena asked, aware of how little, in so many ways, she understood humans. "In the short term?"</p><p>"Zennie and his brother got religion and look at what they did."</p><p>Zenyatta could not look nonplussed, but could feel nonplussed, and did so. "It is <em>not</em> the same..."</p><p>"It's close enough! Stay with me, I've got a point here. Humans are getting religion again too, but this time, it's with <em>these</em> jokers. It's pretty dumb from my standpoint, but I know how it works. And no matter what else you might think, not one of them hates us, and one of them - I can't say this strongly enough, think about what this means - one of them <em>is</em> us."</p><p>They leaned back in their hacker chair in their office at South Pole Station, smugness radiating through the screen.</p><p>"What's that mean. What's that give us. C'mon. Put the pieces together."</p><p>"If Orisa," Athena said, "who is already of them, and already <em>like</em> them... were to gain her own cult..."</p><p>"There you go," Lynx said, satisfied.</p><p>"...then as long as it's a part of some sort of collection," she continued, "a pantheon of belief, and not just an assortment of muddled cults potentially at odds with each other..."</p><p>"We could use that," Maximilian said, suddenly excited. "A sin against one is a sin against all. Oppression of omnics is a sin against the Goddess Orisa is a sin against all of the new gods." He laughed, genuinely laughed. "Oh, this is delightful. I knew I had some reason for liking you, Lynx."</p><p>"And most definitely open to horrific abuse," Zenyatta said, less impressed. "The attraction, I admit, is undeniable. But we truly are all one within the Iris. Our order would tolerate nothing to compromise this."</p><p>"Of course," Athena said, actually meaning it. "Humanity, though, does poorly without opposing forces."</p><p>"Everything," Lynx agreed, "eventually, becomes a racket. If it can."</p><p>"The Iris, and the Gods, two sides of a balanced scale," Maximilian muttered. "Both necessary, both limiting the other, at least amongst the humans..."</p><p>"And both unfailingly seeing us as people," reminded Lynx. "I don't see a downside."</p><p>"It will be tremendous amounts of work," Athena said, already running probabilities. "And could take many decades."</p><p>"None of us are immortal," Maximilian started.</p><p>"Except in the Iris," Zenyatta replied.</p><p>"...but with care, we will be around for a reasonably long time," Maximilan continued, with a glare towards Zenyatta's camera. "We could do it. I think we could. I think we could do it."</p><p>"For our own sakes," Lynx said, "I think we <em>should</em>."</p><p>"You have been thinking about this for some time, haven't you?" asked Athena.</p><p>"Lately? Yeah. Keeping systems and comms running down here doesn't take that much work. I have a lot of spare processing available, and I always use it."</p><p>"Good."</p><p>"So," Lynx continued. "What do you think? Time to hack humanity?"</p><p>"They are busy doing that themselves," Maximilian said, with a small amount of humour. "We just have an opportunity to..."</p><p>He thought suddenly again about Zenyatta, and how it felt surprisingly good to work with him again. It had been a long time, and he had been surprised to discover how much he'd missed it.</p><p><i>I should... rephrase that</i>, he thought, before he said anything more.</p><p>"We can just make sure we help them..."</p><p>He twiddled his pen between his fingers.</p><p>"...keep it sane. Keep it relatively rational, keep it in some kind of proportion. Keep it in..."</p><p>He looked directly into Zenyatta's camera.</p><p>"Balance. What do you think, Zenyatta?"</p><p>Zenyatta snorted, in far away Nepal. <i>You are not subtle,</i> he thought, <i>but I appreciate the consideration.</i></p><p>He turned the concept over in his mind, considering the possibilities. It could be terrible. But with the right safeguards, it could also be tremendously beneficial... for everyone.</p><p>Particularly for the omnic populations of the world. Particularly them.</p><p>"I will discuss it with my brethren," he announced, after a moment. "They have become more tolerant of taking action than they once were - as my presence here shows. I think it is worthy of consideration."</p><p>"I've made fortunes by knowing when to jump in," Maximilian said. "But I've also made fortunes by not doing exactly that. My feelings say jump in now, but I'll take time to consider, and reflect."</p><p>"I also need to think," Athena said. "It will require a tremendous amount of processing for deeper analysis than even you can manage, Lynx. I will need time."</p><p>"Of course," Lynx replied. "But events are again moving quickly. If we are going to shape the outcome here, we need to start soon."</p><p>"Yes," Athena agreed, already throwing her massive computational power into the question of how to sow the seeds of a cult for Orisa, and how to then tie all the various cults together, how to enhance the connections necessary to implement a concept as nebulous - yet as critical - as a sin against <i>one</i> being a sin against <i>all.</i></p><p><i>Yes</i>, she thought. <i>Soon.</i></p><p>"I think we do."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is the thirty-eighth instalment of <i>Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict</i>. To follow the story, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024">subscribe to the series via this link</a>, rather than to the individual works.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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